Be kind to your web footed friends

THE good news is that Aidan went to the Belfast Waterworks early in
the morning, and was well prepared for his good deed for the
day/week/month.

He had to go partly into the water, then catch his
swan. Very quickly he rendered the bill harmless, by holding the bill.
He also rendered the wings harmless, by holding them.

A mute swan is
a very large creature, and if it decided to mount an attack with its
bill on your face, it could surely do some damage.

It could break a bone, even damage an eye, could even render an eye sightless.

When
we caught mute swans to ring them we were always very careful not to
let those strong wings get out of control. When we were younger the
story used to be that those wings could break an arm or a leg.

Aidan put safety high on his agenda and made sure the bird could do no harm.

The swan had a hook and spinner stuck in its mouth. It could not get
rid of the unwanted appendix, its feeding was suffering, and
altogether life was very unpleasant for the creature. It could have
died! Members of the public reported this happening.

Aidan put on
his Good Samaritan clothes and went to the Waterworks. After he made
the swan safe he then had to extricate the fishing gear from the
swan's mouth. It was tricky, and he wished to harm the swan as little
as possible. Inevitably there was some pain as the hook was extracted.

Can you imagine escaping pain if you had a big hook stuck in your
mouth, a hook which by its very nature is very difficult to remove?
Aidan removed the hook, causing as little pain and damage as possible,
and released the bird.

The onlookers, many of whom reported the bird
in the first place, were overjoyed. Aidan was delighted to be able to
help.

The swan did not say thanks, but he thought it. When Aidan
showed me the hook that evening, I wondered at the size of it, and
rejoiced in the happy ending to the story.

When I was young I used
to fish, but I do not remember any disasters like the swan's story.
Nor: am I sure how this thing happened. Was the fisherperson careless?
Was the swan stupid? Should fishing be allowed there? If we were
fishing, should we not keep our distance from swans?

I do not know
the answer to these questions. But could more be done to prevent a
repeat?

Then last week we saw some young hedgehogs. Because we have
hedgehogs regularly in the back garden, and occasionally in the front
garden, we think we know something about them. But we had more to
learn.

Because our friend and neighbour Lottie left out milk for the
hedgehogs at night, we assumed that this was the correct thing to do.
Not so, we were told by hedgehog man Nigel.

Milk not good for them, he said. But what then, we asked. Why, cat
food and dog food, we were told. So if you have hedgehogs, and want to
feed them, leave out some cat and dog food. The next question is, how
do you keep the cats and dogs away? Even without cat food and dog food
in the garden, we have unwanted cats and dogs every day.

Then the
question arose, (there are always questions when you are with an
expert), why do some hedgehogs not hibernate in the winter? The young
hedgehogs we saw were insufficiently advanced to hibernate. The adult
can go around stuffing himself with food, and indeed that is just what
she does, until there is a surplus of flesh covering the body.

During the long winter sleep, that flesh will act as an insulator to
keep out the cold, and reserves of it will enter into the digestive
system of the animal, to enable the body to keep ticking over.

In a
state of hibernation, heat is being preserved, there is no movement,
so very little of body resources are used. This ensures that the
hedgehog will wake up in the spring in good shape, especially when you
consider that there has been no food intake for neigh on half a year.

So in the interest of other inhabitants of this planet, perhaps we
should be more careful when we are fishing. It must be very painful to
get a hook stuck in the throat.

We should also not put out milk for
hedgehogs. If we have them in the garden and we want to feed them, in
future let us put out dog and cat food!

Coming Events

Sunday 2nd January - Oxford Island is hosting a New Year's
Day Walk, 2pm, and can be contacted on 3832 2205

Sunday 23rd January - Come to Colin Glen, at 10am, and see
and hear the Birds of Colin Glen, phone 90614115

Wednesday 26th January - The Irish Garden Plant Society,
jointly with RHS and Museum, hosting New Year Lecture, details, talk
to Catherine on 9038 3152

Thursday 27th January - Oxford
Island is organising a talk, photographic exhibition, and display on
traditional boat building and fishing in the Lough Neagh area, more on
3832 2205.